Four Naxals with Rs 19 lakh bounty surrender in Chhattisgarh

GARIABAND (Chhattisgarh): In an unprecedented success for the Gariaband police, four Naxals surrendered on Sunday.

Inspector General Raipur Range, Amresh Mishra, called it the success of the police force and added, “This is an unprecedented success for Gariaband Police, this area, and for the state. 4 Naxal cadres, who were active for the last decade in this region, have surrendered with their weapons…” The surrendered Naxals were later felicitated by the police.

#WATCH | Chhattisgarh: Four Naxals surrendered in Gariaband and were felicitated by the police. (17.08) pic.twitter.com/u2B9ktj6bA

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Inspector General Raipur Range, Amresh Mishra, added that the Naxals had a prize of total Rs. 19 lakh and said, “They told us that the youth in Naxal organisations want to leave this path of violence and come to the mainstream, but they are being held captive… They had a total prize of Rs 19 lakh on them…”

Meanwhile, one jawan was killed and two others injured in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast triggered by Naxalites in the National Park area of Bijapur district on Monday, a police official said. According to IG-Bastar, P Sundarraj, during an anti-Maoist operation by the DRG team in Bijapur district’s National Park area, an IED blast occurred in the morning.

The injured personnel are in stable condition and out of danger. They have received first aid and are being evacuated for further treatment. Detailed information will be provided after the completion of the operation.

On August 14, the security forces successfully neutralised two dreaded naxal cadres carrying a combined bounty of Rs 1.16 crore during a gun battle in Chhattisgarh’s Mohla-Manpur-Ambagarh Chowki district.

Vijay Reddy, a member of the Dandkaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC), who carried a bounty of Rs 90 lakh, and Lokesh Salame, Secretary of the Rajnandgaon-Kanker Border (RKB) division, with a reward of Rs 26 lakh on his head, were neutralised in a joint operation by the Chhattisgarh Police, District Reserve Guard (DRG), and the 27th Battalion of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) on August 13 in the state’s insurgency-hit region.

The gun battle erupted during a coordinated anti-Naxal operation, the ITBP said in a statement. “Security forces had been tracking the movement of the duo in the dense forest belt when the exchange of fire broke out.”

According to officials, the elimination of Reddy and Salame is considered a major blow to Naxal operations in the Dandkaranya region and along the Rajnandgaon-Kanker border. Weapons and other naxal-related materials were recovered from the site.

In a press conference of the District Police-Mohla-Manpur-Ambagarh Chowki, held at Mohla, Superintendent of Police YP Singh and Commandant of the 27th Battalion ITBP Vivek Kumar Pandey provided the details of the encounter.

Deliberating about further details, the SP said that the slain Left Wing Extremists (LWEs) or Naxals were some very senior cadres of the North Bastar and RKB division. “With the elimination of these, an era of LWE terror and atrocities has ended.

Vijay Reddy alias Chinanna alias Naganna alias Shankar, 55, a resident of Balarampuram Mandal, Atmakur, has been considered as the ‘ghost’ of the LWEs in the area for decades. (ANI)